As the Brooklyn Nets’ flood of footsteps touched down at TD Garden on Friday night, they were ready to cause havoc. The Boston Celtics were fresh off a tough loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, and the Nets, regarded as one of the worst teams in the NBA heading into the season, had been making their money with grit.
So, when they began the game on a 9-0 run, nobody was less surprised than Brooklyn. A wide-open Dennis Schroder layup to open the game caught Joe Mazzulla’s eye as the Celtics messed up their defensive communication, but the Nets’ other buckets were more significant—emblematic of what was to come.
Cam Johnson gets Al Horford switched onto him and drains a step-back jumper from just inside the two-point line. With Xavier Tillman tracking him, Johnson brought out the step-back again on the next possession, trading his long two for a spot behind the arc. Cam Thomas drove into Horford, falling away out of bounds for a floater.
“Timeout, Celtics,” Eddie Palladino roared into the microphone.
Just two minutes into the game, Joe Mazzulla called a timeout. But not to change the game plan.
Celtics trust the process, not the results
Brooklyn’s run extended to 16-2 even after the timeout, but that’s because the Celtics never entered that pause looking to make changes. They used it to clean up mistakes. To polish their already-established game plan.
As the Nets made tough bucket after tough bucket and the Celtics whiffed on the wide-open threes they’ve made thousands of times in practice and hundreds of times in games this year, they stood firm.
Where some players, teams, and coaches would get fed up and may even consider altering their strategy, the Celtics looked straight ahead and carried on. Frustration never seeps in. It’s simply the order of operations in Boston.
“No, it's not that tough,” Mazzulla said of this steadfast approach. “You gotta live by principle, not by feeling.”
The principles of Celtics basketball. That’s what Mazzulla wants to focus on.
Boston shot just 14-of-53 from three-point range against the Nets, but they didn’t stop taking them. Not when they were 0-of-5. Not when they were 6-of-20. Not when they were 8-of-27. Because they were getting good looks.
A Tatum drive in transition that drew the glares of three Nets defenders left Tillman wide-open. Back rim. A pair of off-ball screens by Neemias Queta and a decoy rim run from Sam Hauser gave Payton Pritchard the space to launch. Clank. A Queta screen provided ample space for a Derrick White pull-up with Ben Simmons in drop coverage. All iron.
Time and time again, the Celtics got to their spots. Great looks that all failed to find the mark. But that’s why Mazzulla emphasizes process over results. Procedure over outcomes. Principles. Not feelings.
“I don't think it's very hard, just because we know the type of shooters that we have,” Horford said. “We work at this every day, and those are shots that we have to take. We had a lot of good looks, and you just have to take them and trust in your process. I always just think back on our work, on our preparation when we have any kind of ruts like this.”
Eventually, some looks started to fall. But still not the number that Boston has gotten used to this season.
The hole they had dug themselves into required a Stanley Yelnats-esque performance to get out of, so they got creative. Some big stops here. Some transition buckets there. A few Jrue Holiday and Payton Pritchard post moves sprinkled on top.
All the while never abandoning the methods that have worked over and over again. Those same principles were a constant and always will be a constant for this Celtics team. And they’re so successful because the concept extends far beyond the parquet.
“I mean, that's like the principles of life. You got to be the same person when things are going great and when things aren't,” Jayson Tatum said. “It's not time to panic when things aren't going . He always talks about like, it's not always gonna go how we expect. The Nets aren't the same team as last year. They're playing differently. They had a different coach. They're playing with more energy and freedom and things like that. So, he always says, 'Expect it to go unexpected.'
“We're missing some guys. We weren't hitting shots that we normally do. How are we going to respond? How are we going to figure out a way to win? And it's not from getting away from things that make us who we are. Sometimes you're going to make shots, sometimes you're going to miss them, but we still gotta play the way that we believe to be the right way to play.”
For every killer whale reference and media charade, Mazzulla has an equal number of insightful musings that help the Celtics play the best possible brand of basketball. And most of them relate back to real life, not just the children’s game guys are paid millions to play in front of a live audience.
Place a situation in front of Mazzulla, and he’ll spin it into a lesson. He’s a real-life, living fable, always ready to fill out the pages of his next short story.
Lose a game? It’s great to have tape of what not to do. Miss a wide-open three? The process was more important, anyway. Go down 16-2 to open a game? It’s a perfect chance to practice bouncing back.
“We constantly talk about it,” Tatum said of the Celtics’ principles-first mentality. “There's times, we could be down 16-2, and he might come to the bench smiling. Like, 'This is good for us. This is what we should want.’ And he's right. Sometimes that we need that, not that we want to be down 16-2 all the time, but we got to figure out a way to win the game.”
Though when the Celtics went down 16-2 to open the game against the Nets, Mazzulla wasn’t quite all smiles.
“No, not today he wasn’t,” Tatum said sheepishly of Mazzulla’s lack of grin.
The Celtics are great not because of their ability to be great at all times but because of their willingness to do the opposite. On Friday, it paid off with a win.
Lows are a part of basketball just as they are a part of life. But changing everything after a couple of bad breaks isn’t how champions are made. At least, not the reigning champions.
“I think every coach is different. But the one thing I can tell you is, I learned to trust Joe pretty quickly,” Horford said with a smile. “He has a good feel for the game, and I just trust his judgment, and I feel the same way. We prepare, we do things that we need to do, and we're ready to go, and we're sticking to what we do.
“We just have to do things consistent. And I think that's the key for us.”